Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-13

have gone OUT"
Again, commend the behavior of tine
disciples to ali who are tempted. [ have
heard men in mid-life say they had never
been led into temptation. If you have
not felt temptation it is because you have
not tried to do right. man hoppled and
handcuffed, as long as he lies quietly,
does not test
TEE POWER OF THE CHAIN;
but when he rises up, and with determin-
alton resolves to snap the handcuf or
break the hopple, then he finds the power
of the iron. And there are men who
have been for ten, and twenty, and thirty
years bound hand aud foot by evil habits
who have never felt the power of the
chain, because they have never tried to
break it. It is very easy to go on down
with the stream and with the wind, lying
on your oars; but just turn around and
try to go against the wind and the tide,
and youjwill find it is different matter.
AS long as we go down the current of our
evil habit we seem to get along smooth
ly; but if after while We turn around
and head the other way, towards Christ,
and pardon, and heaven, oh, then how we
have to lay to the oarsi You all have
your temptation. You have one kind,
you another, you another, not one person
escaping.
1t is folly for you to say to some one {:
ST could not be tempted as you are"
The lion thinks it is so strange that the
fish should be caught with hook. The
fish thinks it is so strange that the lion
should be caught with trap. You see
some man with cold, phlegmatic tempera-
ment, and you say: 81 suppose that man
has not 8y temptation" Yes, as much
as you nave. In his phlegmatic nature he
has q temptation TO Incidence and CEN
seriousness and over eating aud drinking !;
temptation to ignore the great work of
life; temptation to lay down an obstacle
in the way of all good enterprises. The
temperament decides the styles of tempta-
ton; but sanguine or lympathic, you will
have temptation. Satan has q graphing
hook just fitted for your soul. A man
never lives beyond the reach of tempta-
ton. You say when man gets to be
seventy or eighty years Of age
HE IS SAFE
from all satanic assault. You are very
much mistaken. A man at eighty-fve
years of age has as many temptations as
a man at twenty-five. They are only diff
ferent styles of temptation.
Ask the aged Christian whether he is
never assaulted Of the power of darkness.
If you think you have conquered the
power OF temptation, you ARE very much
mistaken.
A man who wanted a throne pretended
he was very weak end siCkly, and if he
was elevated he would soon be gone. He
crawled upon his crutches to the throne,
and having attained it he was strong
again. He said: SIT was we'll for me
while l was looking for the scepter of
another that l should stoop, but row that
have found it, why should 1 stoop any
Ionger?" and he threw away his crutchee
and was well again.
How illustrative of the power of temp
tationi You think it is a weak and Grip
pied influence; but give it a chance and
it will be tyrant in your soul. 1t will
grind you to atoms. No man has finally
and forever overcome temptation
until he has left the world. But what
are you to do with these temptations?
Tell everybody about them? All, what a
silly man you would be- AS well might q
commander in fort send word to the
enemy which gate of the castle is least
barred, for you to go and tell what
all your frailties are, and what your
temptations are. The world will only
caricature you, will only scoff at you.
What then must man do? When the
wave strikes him with terrific dash shall
he have nothing to hold on to? In this
contest with "the world, the flesh, and
the devil" shall man have no help, no
counsel?
Our text intimates something different.
In those eyes that wept with the Bethany
sisters / see shining hope. In that voice
which spake until the grave broke and the
widow of Main had back her lost son, and
the sea slept, and sorrow s:upendous
woke up
IN THE ARMS. OF RAPTURE.
In that voice I hear the command
and the promise: "Cast thy burden
on the Lord, and He will sustain thee"
Why should you carry your burdens any
longer? On, you weary soul, Christ has
been in this conflict. He says: "My
grace shall be sufficient for you. You
shall not be tempted above that you are
able to bear" Therefore, with all your
temptations, 60, as these disciples did,
and tell Jesus.
Again: commend the behavior of the
disciples to all those who are abused and
slandered and prosecuted. When Herod
put John to death, the disciples knew
that their own heads were not safe. And
do you know that every John has a
Herod? There are persons in life who do
not wish you very we'll. Your misfortunes
are honeycCmbs to them. Through their
teeth they hiss at you, misinterpret your
motives, and would be glad to see you
upset. No man gets through life without
having a pummeling. Some SANDER
comes after you, horned and husked and
hoofed, to gore and trampIe you; and
what are you to do? l tell you
plainly that ell who serve Christ
must suffer persecution. 1t is the worst
sign in the world for you to be able to
say: 81 haven't an enemy 10 the world. {"
A woe is pronounced in the Bible against
the one of whom everybody speaks well.
If you are at peace with all the world,
and everybody likes you and approves
your work, 1t is because you are an idler
in the Lords vineyard, and are not doing
your duty.
All those who have served Christ, how
ever eminent, have been maltreated at
some stage of their experience. You
know it was so in the time of George
Whitefeld, when he stood and invited men
into the kingdom of God. What did the
learned DIR. Johnson say of him? He
pronounced him Neutrality-suspicious.
How was it when Robert Hall stood and
spoke as scarcely any unInspired man
ever did speak of the gIories of heaven?
And as he stood
SABBATH AFTER SABBATH
preaching on these themes his face kin
died with the glory. John Foster, q
Christian man, said of this man: sFRob-
ert Hall is only acting, and the smile On
his face is reflection of his own vanity"
John Wesley turned all England upside
down with Christian reform, and yet the
punsters were after him, and the meeaest
jokes in England were perpetrated about